voice

[Just Shelly]

This is a link to my voice please let me know what you think. Good or bad it doesn't matter to me!! Its a little longer then planned, I couldn't stop blabbing 

Shelly

[JungianZoe]

You sound remarkably like this one Pagan podcaster named TommyElf who does a show called From the Edge of the Circle.  It's uncanny!  And yes, that's a compliment, because for the two years I heard his promos, I honestly thought he was a she.   In mid-2008, I finally listened to one of his shows because I HAD to find out the answer to that burning question.

[eli77]

I'd say it's mixed - fairly androgynous to me - you have the bonus that you seem to do your greeting, your hello sounding female which is probably tipping the balance in your favour. You have quite a high pitch, but you are missing other gendered elements to your voice. A big one I'd really suggest working on is your emphasis, you are still using the guy-style of using volume for emphasis, and you should be using pitch - that's what gives women what's called a "sing-song" quality to our voices. Right now it is fairly monotone.

A game you can play is to answer questions. Like "What is your name?" "My name is Sarah." Emphasis would be on "Sarah." Practice upping your pitch, rather than increasing the volume. And on and on for more questions. Eventually you practice making it more complex. The way I'd say that sentence would be: My (slightly high) name (slight dip) is (rise back to the level of "My") Sa- (jump) rah (dip). At first you'll need to break all that down by overemphasizing the shifts but eventually it will become instinctive and natural.

The other thing I noticed on that tape is you have a fairly clipped style of speech, which can be a masculine tell. Women tend to extend and link vowel sounds together so everything kind of flows along, rather than short staccato beats.

Keep working on it, you're definitely get there.

[Just Shelly]

I'd say it's mixed - fairly androgynous to me - you have the bonus that you seem to do your greeting, your hello sounding female which is probably tipping the balance in your favour. You have quite a high pitch, but you are missing other gendered elements to your voice. A big one I'd really suggest working on is your emphasis, you are still using the guy-style of using volume for emphasis, and you should be using pitch - that's what gives women what's called a "sing-song" quality to our voices. Right now it is fairly monotone.

A game you can play is to answer questions. Like "What is your name?" "My name is Sarah." Emphasis would be on "Sarah." Practice upping your pitch, rather than increasing the volume. And on and on for more questions. Eventually you practice making it more complex. The way I'd say that sentence would be: My (slightly high) name (slight dip) is (rise back to the level of "My") Sa- (jump) rah (dip). At first you'll need to break all that down by overemphasizing the shifts but eventually it will become instinctive and natural.

The other thing I noticed on that tape is you have a fairly clipped style of speech, which can be a masculine tell. Women tend to extend and link vowel sounds together so everything kind of flows along, rather than short staccato beats.

Keep working on it, you're definitely get there.

Thank you!!

Yes I know this fairly well. I honestly have never worked on my voice. This is one area that just freaks me out!

When I came out to people they said my gestures and voice are what make me appear female the most. The gesture thing blows me away because when I first started to transition I would try to do so many things to make me appear female. I tried to work on voice along with gestures and stuff but gave up. I didn't want to have to "act" female the rest of my life. I just said I am going to be "me" it seems that "me" is what genders me female!! I do try somewhat to get the other female elements into my everyday talk but again I don't want to sound fake and I don't want to have to act it.

I know I have started to say certain things without realizing it. I have been using the word "cute" referring to people or other things, my boys don't think this is "cute"  I have also been calling my children sweety or hun at times but usually go with "bud" or "buddy". I have also called a woman hun once or twice, thats something I thought I would never do. I have been called that by other women, I guess it wears off!!


Shelly

[azSam]

Well you don't sound like CRAP. But it does need work. I REALLY want to record some tutorials on some of the discoveries I've made, but that takes a bit of work. Let me give you a link to a writeup I did to help people with their voice.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,101807.msg753976.html#msg753976

I hope that is able to help you some.

[apple pie]

If it's in the sense whether it sounds nice or not, I agree that it is not the greatest voice. But I don't think it sounds male at all, in the sense that I can't imagine a guy really sounding like that when he talks.

[SandraJane]

Sorry, no, not yet. Please take Samantharz up  on her video compilation, and do download the Spectrogram from the GenderLife site. While you are at the GenderLife site, look for the free PDF download of Finding Your Female Voice.

Also helps if you record your own voice while practicing, you can do this 2 ways: a) Buy a handheld recorder or (b) if you have an iphone or Android phone, you can download a "recorder" app (I use Tape-A-Talk for Android, free). Just practice, practice, practice.

[Janet_Girl]

You sound like an old instructor I had.  Very androgynous.  No wonder that you gender female.  I did the Deep Stealth program and the Spectrogram.  They both helped refine my voice.

Good Job.

[eli77]

I didn't want to have to "act" female the rest of my life. I just said I am going to be "me" it seems that "me" is what genders me female!! I do try somewhat to get the other female elements into my everyday talk but again I don't want to sound fake and I don't want to have to act it.

This is absolutely true, and spending every minute of every day paying attention to how you are speaking would drive anyone a little nuts. But if you are able to practice even just 15 min a day, you'll find that overtime the things you practice will integrate into your daily speech.

Going to a voice therapist can also be a great choice as they will customize the training to your voice and to what you want to achieve. I started off with a fairly female voice (seems common among trans women for some reason), but I wanted to just refine it and make it sound nicer than it did.

I was given the choice at the time if I wanted to push my voice up to a higher pitch, but I didn't like how I sounded that way. Have to get a voice you are comfortable with, as well as a voice that's female.

In the end it's up to you. If you are visually passing, I wouldn't clock you from your voice. On the phone... I'd be uncertain.